Opportunity recognition, intellectual property rights, barriers to technological adoption and technology entrepreneurship in emerging economies: a multilevel analysis

Our study asks a pertinent question – to what extent does institutional environment moderate the influence of entrepreneurs’ ability to recognise opportunities and their likelihood of entering into technology entrepreneurship? This study suggests that technology entrepreneurs in emerging economies may be deterred by strong intellectual property rights regimes and other barriers to technology adoption. We tested our hypotheses using global entrepreneurship monitor (GEM) survey data on individual-level entrepreneurial behaviours that was complemented with national-level datasets on institutional factors such as the intellectual property rights and barriers to technological adoption. Our results indicate that entrepreneurs’ opportunity recognition at the individual-level may be even more important in contexts where barriers to technological adoption are high. We contribute to a growing literature that treats entrepreneurship as a multi-level phenomenon and that examines the combined influences of individual-centric characteristics and his or her context on individual-level entrepreneurial intentions and behaviours – specifically on engaging in technology entrepreneurship. Overall, our research indicates that the factors that predict technology entrepreneurship in emerging economies may not be the same as those in developed nations.